Enchiladas de Pepián Huastecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and charring
• •High-powered blender
• •Wide clay cazuela or heavy pot for the pepián
• •Wooden spoon
• •Tongs or a slotted spatula for the tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the pepitas

   Set a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add the pumpkin seeds, all of them including the 2 tablespoons for garnish, and toast them, stirring without stopping. In three or four minutes they will swell, hiss, and start to pop like small fireworks, turning a pale gold. Pull them off the heat the moment they smell nutty and a few have jumped. Do not let them brown. A dark pepita gives you a muddy, bitter sauce, and there is no fixing it later. Set 2 tablespoons aside for the garnish.

   Green pepián stays green because the seeds stay pale. The second they push past gold toward brown, the sauce loses its color and its sweetness. Low heat, constant motion, and trust your nose.
2. 2

   Char the chiles and garlic

   On the same comal, lay down the serranos and the unpeeled garlic cloves. Turn them until the chiles blister and soften and the garlic skins darken in spots, about five minutes. Slip the garlic out of its skins. This light charring rounds off the raw edge of the chile without cooking the green out of the sauce.

3. 3

   Blend the pepián

   Combine the toasted pepitas (not the reserved garnish), the charred serranos, the peeled garlic, the 1/4 onion, the cilantro, the hoja santa, and 2 cups of the warm broth in a blender. Blend on high for a full two to three minutes, until the sauce is as smooth as you can make it. The seeds have to break down completely. Stop early and the pepián stays gritty and pasty on the tongue.

   If your blender struggles, work in two batches with a little more broth. A weak blender and dry pepitas is how people end up with sandy pepián. Give it the time it needs.
4. 4

   Cook it low, never boil

   Melt the 3 tablespoons of lard in a wide clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium-low heat. Pour in the blended pepián, standing back because it will sputter. Now stir, and keep stirring, with a wooden spoon. Cook it gently for eight to ten minutes, until it thickens enough to coat the spoon and the color sets. Whatever you do, do not let it reach a hard boil. Ground pumpkin seed breaks when it overheats: it turns grainy and weeps oil, and a broken pepián cannot be put back together. Thin it with the remaining warm broth until it falls off the spoon in a soft ribbon. Season with salt. Hold it over the lowest possible heat, stirring now and then, while you work the tortillas.

   Think of pepián like a custard, not a stew. Gentle heat and patience. If the surface starts to threaten a bubble, pull the pot off the flame and stir in a splash of cold broth. No me vengas con atajos.
5. 5

   Soften the tortillas

   In a small skillet, heat a thin film of lard over medium. Pass each tortilla through the hot fat for just a few seconds per side, only long enough to soften it and wake up the corn. You are not frying them crisp. A crisp tortilla will not fold, it will crack. Stack them on a cloth-lined plate as you go. La manteca es el sabor.

6. 6

   Dip and fold

   Working one at a time, lay a softened tortilla in the warm pepián and turn it to coat both sides. Lift it out, let the excess drip back into the pot, then fold it in half and in half again into a quarter. Set it on the serving plate. Repeat, overlapping four folded tortillas per plate. Move quickly. A tortilla that sits too long in the sauce turns pasty.

7. 7

   Sauce, garnish, and serve

   Ladle more warm pepián generously over the folded tortillas. Scatter the crumbled queso fresco, the thin onion rings, and the reserved toasted pepitas across the top. Finish with a squeeze of lime. Serve right away, with cecina seared on the comal alongside if you have it, the way they eat it up in the Huasteca. These do not wait. The tortillas drink the sauce, so plate them and carry them straight to the table. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy raw, hulled green pepitas, the pale flat ones, not the roasted and salted snacking seeds. Salted seeds throw off the seasoning and roasted ones are already too dark to give you a green sauce. A Mexican mercado or a tienda will have them loose and cheap. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •The broken sauce is the one mistake everyone makes the first time. If your pepián turns grainy and oily, you either toasted the seeds too dark or let it boil. Next pot, keep the heat under a simmer and stir without stopping. A splash of cold broth and hard stirring can sometimes pull a slightly broken sauce back from the edge.
• •Cecina is the Huasteca pairing, thin salt-cured beef seared fast on a hot comal until the edges crisp. If you can find it, serve it on the side. A saucer of crushed toasted peanut and a few chiltepín at the table is the regional touch that tells you exactly where this plate is from. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •Day-old tortillas hold up to the dipping. A fresh, soft tortilla soaks through and tears the moment you fold it. If yours are fresh, leave them out uncovered for a few hours to dry slightly before you start.

Advance Preparation

• •Toast the pepitas up to a week ahead and store them airtight once fully cool. This is the step most likely to go wrong in a rush, so getting it out of the way helps.
• •The pepián can be blended a day ahead and refrigerated before the final cooking. It thickens overnight, so reheat it gently and thin with warm broth, and never let it boil.
• •Assemble and sauce the enchiladas only at the last minute. Pepián enchiladas do not hold. The tortillas drink the sauce and turn pasty within minutes, so this is a dish you plate and serve, not one you make ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)